We could say that the Buddha was teaching us to breath again. It’s said that the prince Siddhartha was sitting under a Bodhi tree, practicing the anapanasati (the mindfulness of breathing) when he gained enlightenment and became awake, a Buddha. He was aware of the whole experience of breathing. Through breathing he trained the mind to be sensitive to the body, rapture, pleasure, the mind, mental processes, impermanence, dispassion, cessation, relinquishment. And while breathing he learned to release the mind from suffering. In this session we explore turning towards experience with breathing.
Discover more from the Dharma Library
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From conditioned perception to true and free seeing
Recorded :
September 2, 2018 What do we call reality? How can we free ourselves from conditioned vision and taste life more fully and truly? Acknowledging that our perception of what we call reality is completely subjective, Christine explores the world of perception to find out what is conditioning our vision. Each one of us has been often surprised, deceived…
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Martin Aylward – Week of May 3, 2021
We’re fortunate that Martin Aylward has generously offered to lead our daily meditation sessions for Europe and the UK this week. To find out more about Martin, and view his other recordings on the platform, click here.
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Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of July 18, 2022
This week’s topic is Perfectly Imperfect. “True perfection seems imperfect, yet is perfectly itself.” – Lao Tzu. Expecting life to be perfect is stressful: a beautiful goal like “getting it right” prevents us from developing when it morphs into “never getting anything wrong.” The non-harming noble-truths path of the Dharma may arouse perfectionism, but if carefully followed, can set us free from such entrapment.
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The Gratification, The Danger and The Escape
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September 23, 2018 The triad of gratification, danger, and escape is one of the Buddha’s most concise and simple teachings for investigating everyday lived experience. This formula can be applied to every single aspect of our experience. Many Buddhist scholars point out that this teaching contains the earliest roots of what we have come to know as the…
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The Surgeon’s Probe: Healing with Mindfulness
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December 2, 2018 Vince writes: “I am continuously inspired by some of the images that the Buddha offers us of ‘Sati’ or ‘Mindfulness’. This talk for Worldwide Insight is an exploration of some the many aspects of mindfulness – or in my case a lack of mindfulness – that continue to play themselves out in my life. In…
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Practicing the Middle Way: Navigating Between Extremes
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May 14, 2023 The Buddha invites us to travel the Middle Path, between extremes. How do we navigate this path that leads to knowledge, understanding and liberation? We practice with mindfulness and kindness to meet our day to day experiences and our conditioning: societal, familial, cultural, and historical. Inviting in curiosity and diligence, we learn to practice to…
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How We Grow Through What We Go Through
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January 29, 2023 How can we, and our communities, not just survive but thrive during challenging, post-traumatic times? Spirituality, positive psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, mindfulness and more have boosted human resilience in the face of adversity for generations. Through this session will explore meditation practices that can help us to transform challenges into creative opportunities for growth.
Discussion